In 1958 Roy Freeman, a Melungeon man from Kentucky, plead guilty to murdering his girlfriend to avoid being lynched or facing the death penalty. When the girlfriend’s remains are found more than 40 years later in a rusty pickup in the Blue Ridge Parkway, Freedman escapes prison and turns up in Professor Simon Shaw’s living room. After the convict asks the “forensic historian” to help prove his innocence and turns himself in, Shaw travels to his hometown of Boone to visit family and investigate Freeman’s claims. This is the third book in the Professor Simon Shaw series of mysteries.